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OTTAWA — If it were just a numbers game, B.C. was shortchanged in Justin Trudeau’s new cabinet that was sworn in Wednesday.

B.C. got three of 31 ministers while the province’s 13-per-cent share of Canada’s population would justify an argument for at least four, which would be in keeping with the proportion of posts that Stephen Harper regularly set aside for B.C.

But Trudeau’s campaign declaration on the top of Grouse Mountain that he has B.C. in his blood and the major responsibilities he’s assigning to his West Coast ministers suggest the province will be more than an afterthought in Ottawa.

The three appointees are Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould (Vancouver Granville), an aboriginal leader and former Crown prosecutor; Defence Minister Harjit S. Sajjan (Vancouver South), a former police officer and decorated military veteran; and lawyer-Paralympian Carla Qualtrough (Delta), who is legally blind, appointed minister of sport and persons with disabilities.

Wilson-Raybould and Sajjan will have particular clout, as both got spots on the powerful Trudeau-chaired, 11-person cabinet committee on “agenda and results.”

There was some criticism that B.C.’s representation is too Vancouver-centric, with two from the city itself, a third from Delta — and no one from Surrey.

“I am astonished that one of the fastest-growing cities of over 510,000 people is not represented in cabinet,” fumed Conservative MP and former Surrey mayor Dianne Watts, the MP for South Surrey-White Rock. “Obviously the Liberal priorities are elsewhere.”

But Wilson-Raybould, who like all ministers will get an extra $80,100 in pay and a car with a driver on top of the base $167,400 annual MP salary, said the province will be well-represented not only by the cabinet ministers but by the 14 other Liberal backbenchers elected in the strongest showing by the party in B.C. since 1974.

“I think we have … a tremendously strong team of 17 members of Parliament from British Columbia,” she said in an interview.

Norman Ruff, a University of Victoria political scientist, said B.C. got a “reasonable” allocation by a cabinet-maker who was clearly focused on skills needed for key tasks more than regional allocations.

“The most important aspect of today’s cabinet is that all three of our appointments do far more than fill just cabinet seats for British Columbia,” Ruff said. “They bring much experience and talent to their specific portfolios.”

Richard Johnston, a University of B.C. political scientist, said getting three cabinet spots isn’t a major concern, especially since B.C. is getting two positions so senior they represent “major coups for the province.”

He said bypassing Steve Fuhr in Kelowna-Lake Country may “signal acceptance of the party’s strongly metropolitan base.”

B.C. First Nations leaders were among those cheering the new cabinet and especially the appointment of two aboriginal members, Fisheries Minister Hunter Tootoo of Nunavut and Wilson-Raybould, the former B.C. regional chief of the Assembly of First Nations.

“This is a very significant day for B.C. First Nations and all indigenous people across Canada,” said Grand Chief Ed John of the B.C. First Nations Summit.

“It’s time to now concentrate on true reconciliation and set aside Canada’s historic approach of fighting and in some cases denying the existence of Indigenous peoples and Nations in the courts.”

Wilson-Raybould, meanwhile, said she looks forward to a productive “nation to nation” relationship to resolve numerous issues in aboriginal communities.

Wilson-Raybould will have her hands full. She will be the key minister if the Liberals go ahead with their promise to hold a national inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women and girls, and will also be assigned to roll back a number of Tory laws that may violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. She will also be the minister responsible for legalizing marijuana, and will have to oversee the handling of a Supreme Court of Canada ruling legalizing assisted suicide.

The three British Columbians were sworn in Wednesday morning as part of a pared-down 31-member cabinet that is made up of 15 women and, including Trudeau, 16 men. Sajjan joined three other Punjabi-Canadians from east of the Rockies who got cabinet posts.

“I think Trudeau has shown remarkable courage” with those appointments, said Rattan Mall, editor of the Indo-Canadian Voice. “He will be deeply admired by Sikhs and Indians all around the world.”

There were, however, no Chinese-Canadians appointed to cabinet, though several were elected in the Toronto area.

Wilson-Raybould’s appointment by Trudeau was particularly poignant, since her father Bill Wilson told Trudeau’s father Pierre at a 1983 constitutional conference that his daughter would like to some day be prime minister.

Among those left out of the cabinet were the only two B.C. Liberals to survive the 2011 debacle that left the Liberals as the third party in the House of Commons — Hedy Fry (Vancouver Centre) and Joyce Murray (Vancouver Quadra).

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Trudeau sworn in as Canada's prime minister, three from B.C. named to cabinet

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